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When Yovanna first made her “Real Housewives of Atlanta” debut during season eleven of, the first word that came to mind was childish. Anyone who feels the need to declare in the middle of a room of fully grown adults that she was “that b*tch” in college obviously has some growing to do and is living her life as though she has something to prove. And unfortunately, her attempts to be liked and accepted by particular members of the cast caused her to lead the rest of the cast on a half season-long witchhunt, also known as #snakegate, that would eventually end with her being portrayed as a liar on national television.
In case you were in and out this season, Yovanna told NeNe and several other cast members that there was someone who had secret audio of Cynthia dogging her then-estranged friend, NeNe Leakes. The drama eventually came to a head during the Toronto trip, with Yovanna being exposed as the leak after previously denying that she had anything to do with it. She was later asked to leave Toronto early.
Following the explosive incident and Yovanna’s removal, #snakegate disappeared as quickly as it had surfaced. NeNe and Cynthia made amends and that was that. Or so we thought. On Sunday night’s episode “Secret’s Revealed” episode in which Bravo shared unreleased footage from season twelve, Yovanna reunited with cast members to apologize and confess to the fact that there was never any secret audio. Apparently, she cooked up the lie of “having receipts” receipts of Cynthia talking about NeNe after getting angry after an exchange with Cynthia earlier in the season.
“I tried to talk to you guys and in Canada and you guys verbally attacked me,” Yovanna told the cast during a game night gathering at Kandi’s house. “You almost physically attacked me so I never got to get out what I was trying to say but I was trying to come clean in Canada to you and I said that to you [Cynthia] and Kandi earlier.”
When asked why she would make up such a dramatic lie by Shamea, Yovanna had this to say:
“I explained that and I was apologetic to them. It was a big misunderstanding. It was taken way out of proportion.”
As Kenya pointed out, it’s pretty “cuckoo” to completely fabricate a lie of that magnitude because you’re upset with someone you barely know. However, if we’re being honest, this type of conduct is in alignment with everything else Yovanna has shown us since we were first introduced to her last season: straight childish.
Now whether or not NeNe was in on this lie and sought to conspire with Yovanna in attempts to play the victim and cook up a storyline this season is still up for debate. There has since been quite a bit of back and forth between NeNe and Yovanna, with NeNe releasing a series of text messages allegedly exchanged between her and Yovanna and Yovanna claiming the texts were fabricated. I suppose we will have to wait and see what happens at the reunion, which airs Sunday, May 10.
